ination. But it is not
surprising that we should find some difficulty in following his
imagination at such a point.

Let us look at the whole speech. The Ghost leaves Hamlet with the words,
'Adieu, adieu! Hamlet, remember me'; and he breaks out:

O all you host of heaven! O earth! what else?
And shall I couple hell? O, fie! Hold, hold, my heart;
And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,
But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee!
Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat
In this distracted globe. Remember thee!
Yea, from the table of my memory
I'll wipe away all trivial fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,
That youth and observation copied there;
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmix'd with baser matter: yes, by heaven!
O most pernicious woman!
O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!
My tables--meet it is I set it down,
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain;
At least I'm sure it may be so in Denmark: [_Writing_
So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word;
It is 'Adieu, adieu! remember me.'
I have sworn 't.

The man who speaks thus was, we must remember, already well-nigh
overwhelmed with sorrow and disgust when the Ghost appeared to him. He
has now suffered a tremendous shock. He has learned that his mother was
not merely what he supposed but an adulteress, and that his father was
murdered by her paramour. This knowledge too has come to him in such a
way as, quite apart from the _matter_ of the communication, might make
any human reason totter. And, finally, a terrible charge has been laid
upon him. Is it strange, then, that he should say what is strange? Why,
there would be nothing to wonder at if his mind collapsed on the spot.

Now it is just this that he himself fears. In the midst of the first
tremendous outburst, he checks himself suddenly with the exclamation 'O,
fie!' (cf. the precisely similar use of this interjection, II. ii. 617).
He must not let himself feel: he has to live. He must not let his heart
break in pieces ('hold' means 'hold together'), his muscles turn into
those of a trembling old man, his brain dissolve--as they threaten in an
instant to do. For, if they do, how can he--_remember_? He goes on
reiterating this 'remember' (the 'word' of the Ghost). He is, literally,
afraid that he will _forge